Herawde
Thie valourous actes woulde meinte of menne astounde;Harde bee yer shappe encontrynge thee ynn fyghte;Anenst all menne thou bereft to the grounde,Lyche the hard hayle dothe the tall roshes pyghte.As whanne the mornynge sonne ydronks the dew,Syche dothe thie valourous actes drocke eche knyghte's hue.
Words in this poem
- menne pron.
- A man; one; -- used with a verb in the singular, and corresponding to the present indefinite one or they. Piers Plowman. [OE. me, men. "Not the plural of man, but a weakened form of the word man itself." Skeat.]
- anenst prep.
- Over against; as, he lives anent the church. [OE. anent, anentis, anence, anens, anents, AS. onefen, onemn; an, on, on + efen even, equal; hence meaning, on an equality with, even with, beside. See Even, a.]
- sonne n.
- A male child; the male issue, or offspring, of a parent, father or mother. [OE. sone, sune, AS. sunu; akin to D. zoon, OS., OFries., & OHG. sunu, G. sohn, Icel. sonr, Sw. son, Dan. sön, Goth. sunus, Lith. sunus, Russ. suin', Skr. sunu (]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Herawde is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Rowley Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #13037; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Chatterton, Herawde, in The Rowley Poems (1777), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chatterton-rowley/herawde.html, id L12145.
Form and metre
Herawde is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCC. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 70%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.7 syllables.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCC astoundeA · fyghteB · groundeA · pyghteB · dewC · hueC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thie valourous actes woulde meinte of menne astounde; | 11 | ··········· |
| Harde bee yer shappe encontrynge thee ynn fyghte; | 10 | ·········· |
| Anenst all menne thou bereft to the grounde, | 10 | ·····˘/··· |
| Lyche the hard hayle dothe the tall roshes pyghte. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| As whanne the mornynge sonne ydronks the dew, | 10 | ·········· |
| Syche dothe thie valourous actes drocke eche knyghte's hue. | 12 | ········/˘·· |
Notes from the edition 5
The glosses and notes to the Rowley Poems, from Tyrwhitt's edition (Project Gutenberg #13037).
- Line 1 painted.
- Line 2 He told his beads backwards; a figurative expression to signify cursing.
- Line 3 poor, needy.
- Line 4 a cloke.
- Line 6 a loose white robe, worn by Priests.
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.